Nyapanyapa Yunupingu facts for kids

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu (born 1945 – died October 20, 2021) was an amazing Australian artist. She was a Yolŋu painter and printmaker. The Yolngu people are an Indigenous group from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Nyapanyapa lived and worked in the community of Yirrkala.

Her art was special because it was different from traditional Yolngu art. This made her work stand out in the art world. People in her community and art experts had different opinions about her unique style.

Early Life and Family

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was a Yolngu woman from the Gumatj clan. She was born in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in 1945. Her father was Mungurrawuy Yunupingu, a well-known Yolngu artist and leader. He was famous for his part in the Yirrkala bark petitions, which were important documents for Aboriginal rights.

Nyapanyapa was married to Djiriny Mununggurr, a leader from the Djapu clan. He passed away in 1977. She had many siblings, including her sisters Gulumbu Yunupingu, Barrupu Yunupingu, Dhopiya Yunupingu, and Djakangu Yunupingu. Her brothers were Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu.

Will Stubbs, who worked at the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, once said that Nyapanyapa's art was her best way to communicate. This was because she was deaf and didn't speak English. She also didn't talk much about her art, especially since she didn't paint sacred designs.

When she was growing up, Nyapanyapa helped on the mission with her sisters. They looked after dairy cows and goats. She learned to paint by watching her father. Even though he didn't formally teach her his special designs, she picked up a lot from him.

Her Art Journey

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu created her artworks through the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala.

Starting to Paint

Nyapanyapa started painting at The Yirrkala Printspace in 2007. She began working there every day in the outdoor courtyard. Soon, other artists joined her, and they became known as the "Courtyard Ladies." This group included her sisters Barrupu and Gulumbu Yunupingu, and other artists like Nongirrna Marawili.

Nyapanyapa's early paintings told stories from her own life. They were not based on old ancestral stories or traditional "dreamings." Instead, they showed her personal experiences or her family's history. One of her most famous early works was Incident at Mutpi 1975, painted in 2008. This painting showed a time when a buffalo attacked her. A film was made to go with the painting, and both won an award in 2008.

Mayilimiriw (Meaningless) Art

In 2009, Nyapanyapa had a dream about the buffalo that had attacked her. After this dream, she decided she would never paint that event again. Instead, she started making paintings without any clear pictures or figures. These works focused on layers of colored lines, called cross-hatching. This new style was about the feeling of creating art in the moment, rather than planning a specific image.

White Paintings

Her "white paintings," made between 2009 and 2010, took this idea even further. These paintings used only rhythmic marks and no color. They were all about being spontaneous and free. The way the paint looked depended on the brush and paint she was using at that exact moment.

Paintings with Figures

Even though most of her art was mayilimiriw, Nyapanyapa also made some newer works that included figures. For example, she sometimes painted ganyu (stars). These stars often referred to the story of the seven sisters, a well-known Aboriginal story.

How She Created Her Art

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu did not plan or sketch her paintings beforehand. She let her creativity flow freely, focusing on how the textures and strokes felt. Over her career, she tried different art forms. She made carvings of animals, linocut prints, and bark paintings. Later, she even worked with multimedia projections. In her mayilimiriw paintings, she often started with circles, lines, or shapes. Then, she would fill the space around them with cross-hatching, using natural red, pink, and white earth colors.

Important Moments in Her Career

Nyapanyapa had many important achievements in her art career:

• In 2008, she had her first solo show of bark paintings in Sydney at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
• Her art was shown at the Biennale of Sydney in both 2012 and 2016.
• In 2008, she won the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Prize. This award was for a piece that combined painting on bark with a video. It told the story of her buffalo attack in 1975.
• Her paintings about the buffalo attack also inspired a dance called Nyapanyapa. This dance was created by Stephen Page for the Bangarra Dance Theatre. The dance group even toured the United States with it.
• In 2017, her abstract painting Lines won the bark painting prize at the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. This artwork was later bought by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) in Darwin.
• She was chosen as one of the artists for the "Know My Name" project in 2020. This project by the National Gallery of Australia celebrated Australian women artists.
• From May to October 2020, a big exhibition of her work called the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu was held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was the first solo exhibition at MAGNT to feature an Aboriginal Australian artist.
• In 2021, Nyapanyapa won the Wynne Prize for her painting Garak – Night Sky. The National Gallery of Australia also bought two more of her works for another "Know My Name" exhibition.

Art Collections

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu's artworks are held in many important art collections, including:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia
• National Gallery of Australia
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Major Exhibitions

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu's art was shown in many important exhibitions around the world. These included solo shows at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and a major exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Her work was also part of group shows at places like the National Gallery of Australia, the Hood Museum of Art, and the Ian Potter Museum of Art. Her art traveled to museums in the United States and Canada as part of the "Marking the Infinite" exhibition.

Awards She Won

• 2008: 3D Award, 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
• 2017: Bark Painting Award, 34th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
• 2021: Wynne Prize for Garak – night sky

Death

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu passed away on October 20, 2021, in Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia.